giving breakfast a whirl

We love smoothies.

That's why, in the end, we bought the Blendtec (though it has made itself useful in many other ways!). It allows us to take advantage of all that frozen fruit put up over the summer; smoothies made entirely with frozen fruit can kill a regular blender after a while, but with the Blendtec, we're turning out thick and creamy concoctions without a hitch. It is also good for green smoothies if you are interested in such things. I am. :)

The husband tends to make his smoothies on the weekend, either as a fruit-packed snack or a supplement to lunch. (Lately he has been adding whole coffee beans, and let me tell you, the flavor's amazing.)

I, on the other hand, often make them for breakfast. Recently, I've done some experiments in an effort to add even more nutrition and variety. Here are two combinations I really like.

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Emerald Isle 

3/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt or kefir*
2 cups lightly packed curly kale**
1/2 a frozen banana, broken into chunks
1/2 a green or yellow apple, seeds removed
1 peeled kiwi
1-2 tablespoons nut butter of choice (optional)

Layer ingredients in blender in order given, and blend until completely combined.


Peachberry Flip

2/3 cup plain whole milk yogurt or kefir
1/2 a frozen banana, broken into chunks
1/2 cup frozen peach slices
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 large egg***
1 tablespoon sunflower butter
heavy sprinkling of cinnamon

Layer ingredients in blender in order given, and blend until completely combined.

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*If you don't consume dairy I think that almond or soy milk would probably work just as well.
**I am not sure how a regular blender would deal with the raw kale.
***Obviously, only make this if you have confidence in the the cleanliness of your egg source. I've been making mayonnaise with fresh, freerange eggs for a year now and have no qualms about sticking them in a smoothie. Use your judgement.

{image credit: Heavy on Health}

in which we are sugar'd

Rachel and I have a tradition of gingerbread construction. It's been at least five years now. We always use this recipe for dough and icing because the dough produces extremely hard and strong house pieces, and the icing dries quickly, good for the impatient among us.

We make our own templates with a ruler and scrap paper; if you roll the dough thinly the recipe will give you enough for two cottages, one large (approximately 6x6x4 inches) and one small (half that size). One each for the large and small sisters. Once everything is baked, cooled, and whipped, we slice up an Amazon box for bases and away we go.

Our first gingerbread house was festooned with sugar in all its many-colored forms. We even bought Frosted Mini-Wheats, which otherwise never cross my mother's threshold. But they do make an admirable thatched roof.

In years since then, we've done several subtler models, using natural decor such as dried green lentils and cinnamon sticks. Away with the food coloring! Away with the refined sweeteners! we said. (If you're interested, rows of banana chips make excellent roof tiles.)

That was all very well in its way. This year, however, we returned to our roots. I mean, it's not like we're eating the stuff (mostly) so we went to the store and bought sugar with abandon. For our house decorations both of us went for the Hansel and Gretel, the wholehearted candypalooza look, with-- if I may say so-- smashing results.

On Gingerbread House Day my kitchen contains more high fructose corn syrup than it does at any other time of the year (since at any other time of the year, it contains zero).

happy birthday Beethoven

Weekend linkage

Only three for you this week.

First, humorous: a poem about the baffling wilderness of English pronunciation. (Thanks Gretchen!)

Second, serious: an article on how doctors tend to choose different treatment-- if any treatment at all-- than their terminally ill patients.

Last, edible: dark chocolate pudding. I recommend it with raspberries . . . and in small portions. It is RICH.

Well [Spoken] Wednesdays: the Simmons edition

I only took one class with Tracy Simmons, then-head of the Hillsdale journalism department: Prose Style. It was a thoughtful, practical course that I very much appreciated. Furthermore, Tracy's brusque cynicism and unabashed snobbery were great fun when taken in small doses (i.e. twice weekly for a single semester). I think I couldn't have handled any more . . . but my writing benefited immensely from that one semester with him.

And here is the marginalia of Professor Tracy Simmons.

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“People who go through a core curriculum tend to be humbler.”

“I look at style as the great preservative of literature.”

“Bad usage gets into the air.”

“I don’t wear legible clothing.”

“Time can play little tricks on us.”

“It’s not just the thought that counts.”

“If I’d had the Mr. Rogers experience, I might be a happy man today.”

“There are some things so stupid that only people who have gone to school can say them.”

“I happen to know that there are women in the world. And for the record, I’m glad of it.”

“The prostitution analogy bothers me.”

“Sociology has walked in the door and squatted in the corner.”

“Everyone should be a P.G. Wodehouse reader. It’ll save you from despair.”

“Much of style is an act of courtesy.”

“Between aesthetics and politics, I choose aesthetics almost every time.”

“You should cultivate the same habits on the third Scotch as in the lecture hall.”

“I think I’m driven more by the beauty than the truth of things.”

“Then there’s eros. That’s love with glands.”

“Justice is abstract. Hanging is not.”

“The adult mind is supposed to become more subtle.”

“There’s nothing like a quiet room.”

“You have to earn cynicism.”

“Just take this for the prejudicial statement it is. . .”

“I’m used to being a culinary blockhead.”

“There are a lot of books out there that started as magazine articles.”

“This is an example of someone being classically drunk.”

“I have a musical imagination.”

“Let’s ruin this sentence!”

“This is stupid male day, and I’m in charge.”

“I don’t like sepulchral rooms.”

“What the hell world have you been living in?”

“The Amtrak is not exactly the Orient Express.”

“Disagree intelligently.”

“I approach the blogging world with horror, because it’s a world without editors.”

“I am not a virtuous man, but I haven’t missed a deadline since 1982.”

“We allow our heroes to get away with all sorts of things.”

“Make the economy leap!”

“There will always be a place for more falling-in-love stories.”

“It’s the self-satisfied people who never improve.”

“You never graduate from poetry.”

“That might sound good over the second drink. No, make that the third.”

“Everyone’s supposed to be a hero these days.”

“That’s the theory: get more readers with less text.”

“Well, we talked about girlfriends too. Trivial things.”

“Is this the best you?”

“A long complex sentence needs to justify itself.”

“If it’s a news item, to heck with the voice.”

“I often see myself as a garden badly in need of weeding.”

“The older you get, the more you should feel your ignorance.”

“I have seven volumes to live.”

“I grew up around a lot of advice-givers.”

“People who are always waiting for the moment to stop are in a bad place.”

“OK, end of profound reflection.”